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About Dear Tabbi
Expertise
My expertise is in helping people understand their cat (or cats) and their behavior. Questions are welcome even if you don't have a cat....just a question about them. Hopefully my experience, suggestions, and comments will be of help to you...and your cat (or cats). Looking through my past responses to questions will give you additional information and/or answers too.
Domestic Cats = cats (no matter what breed) who are tame or not wild, or abandoned cats who were pets that became wild, but can be tamed again.
Ferals = cats who are born with one or more parents who were wild stray cats. They usually have had no interactions with people. They have an inbred distrust of humans and are difficult to socialize. They are skittish, hide, and are afraid of people. They take a lot of time and patience to work with them. A lot of kittens from shelters had a feral parent.
Experience
Since I was a child, over 45 years, I have been owned by a LOT of cats and kittens of almost every temperament, behavior, and personality. I have had experience with neurotic, disabled (including blind), stray, and 'problem child' cats and kittens. (A few normal cats too!) Plus all the things a lifetime of owning cats and research has taught me. I also have experience in feral cat behavior (which is different from domestic cats), and some experience with feral colonies that includes colony feeding and feral cat TNR (trap/neuter/release).
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* One of the top 50 Experts Of 2008 *
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You are here: Experts > Animals/Pets > Cats > Cat Training and Behavior (Domestic and Feral) > spooked cats
Expert: Dear Tabbi - 11/5/2009
Question
I have two six year old sister kitties. I moved into my home 5 months ago and all has been fine until 2 weeks ago. They always slept with me and used my room a their hang out to watch birds and nap. They spent lots of time under the bed too. Suddenly they wouldn't sleep with me and won't even come in my room at all. They are also timid in the hallway outside the room and stare constantly at the floor. House has not basement, just crawl space and seems to be bug free. They stare at floor and then run to the only place they stay now... in the middle of my dining room table... the farthest away from my room and hall that they can get. They eat inside kitchen door next to dining room and use their pan in the laundry room but run like crazy back to the dining room table. They prefer not to walk on floor at all if they can jump from furniture to counter but upon hitting the floor they run to one of maybe 3 safe spots they have found. This is driving me crazy. I do not want my cats living on my dining room table and I miss their company too. They stare at floor as if they are seeing something that I can not. Any suggestions to get them back to their sweet lovable former selves?
They are not happy and neither am I.
Answer
Sara,
My suggestion would be to bomb your house for fleas. That is typical behavior when there are fleas in the home. My cats will do that too during flea season. They do not want to get on the floor so they jump from counter to furniture. When one does it, the other will follow!
Sometimes, no matter how careful you can be with fleas and cats they can come in from the lawn outside and can multiply quickly, and you may not even see them. I would try that first.
Tabbi
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